The following is an excerpt from the Georgia High School Football Daily, an e-mail newsletter compiled by longtime Atlanta high school football writers Todd Holcomb and Chip Saye:
Tucker won its first state championship in history in 2008 under second-year coach Franklin Stephens. GHSF Daily spoke with Stephens this week about his 2009 team, his 2008 champions, his influences as a head coach and one of his pet peeves - having to share the $40,000 his school earned by making the state finals at the Georgia Dome with other schools in DeKalb County.
Here is what Stephens said about …
Rebuilding: “This team is going to be a little different. The first year [2007], we had a lot of experienced kids that were older, a lot of seniors. They were ready to play. This past year, we had a lot of seniors, but they didn’t have experience. They played themselves into good players. This year, we have some young talented kids, but in experience, it’s to be similar to last year. We’re going to have to get experience by fire.” [Tucker has five of 22 starters returning.]
On 2008: “We had three players who could score from any point on the field. That was Jonathan Davis, Drayton Calhoun and Chris Beck. Going into the season, Chris was unseasoned. We knew about him from practice, that he was a good athlete who worked extremely hard. He needed experience, and that happened. You could see it week by week he was getting better.” [Davis was the Class AAAA defensive player of the year who signed with Central Florida. Calhoun was a halfback who signed with LSU. Beck, the quarterback, wound up at Army.]
Losing 38-0 to Marist in the regular season: “What the Marist game did was got our attention. Seeing is believing. It’s one of those experience things. Experience is something you’ve been through. If somebody has to tell you, you won’t believe it.” [Tucker won the rematch 15-3 in the Class AAAA final.]
On how Tucker would have matched up with Class AAAAA champion Camden County in 2008: “It would’ve been interesting to play them because we would’ve been very familiar with each other offensively and defensively, really mirror images. They’re probably bigger and just as fast. But we’re never going to say we can’t match up with them.” [Stephens was the defensive coordinator for Camden County under coach Jeff Herron in 2007, when Stephens first ran a 3-5 defense.]
The 3-5 defense: “We have more of those skilled athletes than linemen. That’s what the defense allows you to do, get more linebackers and secondary men on the field. I like to refer to it as the flexible 3-3 because it gives us the flexibility each week to stop what an offense does best. You can manipulate it from week to week. Against Marist, it’s going to be more of a four- or five-man front. Against a spread team, it’s going to be more of a three-man front.”
The “pony” position in the 3-5 defense: “You’ve got to have a kid who could play defensive end, linebacker, safety, cornerback. There’s no limitations to what that kid can do. He’s going to be one of your better athletes on the team. We’ve got two of them. One plays strong side, the other the weak side.”
Best player he’s ever faced: “May have been Joe Burns, in 1997. I was in Burke County [Stephens' alma mater]. We played at Thomas County Central in the state championship. We couldn’t stop him. At that time, he was probably the biggest back we’d seen, just that great combination of speed and power and size.. We did not have a large team that year, and he just ran through us.” [Thomas County Central defeated Burke County 6-0 in the 1997 Class AAA final.]
Revenue sharing in DeKalb County: “I think it’s a travesty, especially the playoff part of it. It’s one thing to share general revenue or regular-season revenue, but it’s a whole ‘nother story with playoff money. That’s bonus money for a team that’s gone out and been successful, and they don’t get their reward. Why should the county be privy to all that money?” [Tucker was the only one of 10 state finalists that had to share state finals revenue with other schools from its school system.]
Biggest influences a coach: At Georgia Southern, it was Mike Hodges. He was the offensive line coach. His mentality was that we’re going to be more physically and mentally tough and we’re willing to outlast you. Coach Herron, his thing was a mindset that we’re going to train to be the best, and in the game, we’re going to perform well because of what we’ve invested. Also, his organizational skills and attention to detail were an enormous part of his makeup. Coach [Mike] Falleur at Northwest Whitfield. He was able to convince people to believe in him. One other was Nick Davis at Riverdale. He taught you to be as positive as possible with kids.”
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